"VN heeft gefaald in war on drugs"

Aan de vooravond van de jaarlijkse VN-bijeenkomst over drugs, die plaatsvindt van 11-20 maart in Wenen, is uit een rapport van de Europese Commissie gebleken dat de 'war on drugs' die de afgelopen 10 jaar door de VN is gevoerd, niets heeft opgeleverd.

In het rapport wordt geconcludeerd dat ''er geen bewijs is gevonden dat het wereldwijde drugsprobleem is afgenomen gedurende de UNGASS periode van 1998 tot 2007".
Sterker nog, in sommige delen van de wereld zijn de problemen alleen maar toegenomen. Zo steeg de productie van heroïne de afgelopen tien jaar met 120 procent.

Actievoerders, wetenschappers en gezondheidsexperts stellen dat de aanpak heeft gefaald, en worden ondersteund door cijfers die aantonen dat de productie, smokkel en het gebruik van drugs alleen maar zijn toegenomen gedurende de laatste 10 jaar. Dit terwijl de kosten die het huidige beleid met zich meedraagt sterk oplopen, onder andere door het aantal gevangenen dat vast zit vanwege de strengere straffen.

En hoewel er door steeds meer critici, en zelfs media (!) wordt gewezen op een meer pragmatische aanpak, zoals het benadrukken van 'harm reduction' en zelfs legalisatie, blijft VN drugsbaas Antonio Maria Costa (wie kent hem nog?) het huidige beleid verdedigen. Hij waarschuwt voor het 'risico van de omvang van de criminele drugsmarkt'.

Met de toenemende productie, smokkel en het gebruik van illegale drugs klinkt de slogan "Een drugsvrije wereld, we kunnen het!", die veelvuldig te horen was bij de aanvang van de VN campagne in 1998, meer onrealistisch dan ooit tevoren. Ondanks het uitblijven van succes in de huidige aanpak wordt verwacht dat leden van de Verenigde Naties deze week zullen tekenen voor het voortzetten van het 'war on drugs' beleid met nog eens 10 jaar.

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Reacties

DSmoker - 2009-03-11 18:56:57

+10

Well, I could have told them that also. Do they really need a report to tell them that? And of course this report goes into the shredder... Bastards.

nono - 2009-03-11 19:47:25

When will they learn that repression is not the answer, and will only lead to rebellion.

nishva - 2009-03-11 22:52:25

It will never stop as long as people
WANT to take drugs and there is a market
for all the different things for different people.

Blackness - 2009-03-11 23:58:35

About damn time that they understood the futility of restriction. >_<
Now if only we can get them to open their minds just for a split second so the can see the alternatives and the truth of free will...

gaboss / santero - 2009-03-12 08:41:39

no shit *yawn*

how would it succeed, if the only ones trying to
"stop the drugs" are a bunch of non-brainers,
who don't know jack about entheogens in the
first place ??? *rolleyes*

you can't stop natural human behavior, you fascist idiots.

UVSunrise - 2009-03-12 13:37:03

Oh come on! This is modern Europe! How long can they keep taking this ridiculous approach? Of course we'll always need regulation for hard harmful drugs but with mounting proof to the contrary for MDMA and cannabis now is the perfect time to take a fresh approach and put a gigantic hole in criminals paychecks. Not only does it make sense on an economic level, a crime control level but also IT'S WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT!
We aren't stupid anymore! We've seen the proof and we know you're lying! The health risks of two of the most common drugs on the European market (and least intrusive in a social sense two, both with effects far prefereable to alcohol in my opinion as no one is ever going to mug you after joint or after leaving a club pilled up) are slowly being scientifically deconstructed to be no more than any other legal intoxicant.
It's about time we saw some progressive thought from world leaders for once.
Maybe now with the fresh major UK government study pretty much dispelling the dangers of cannabis at least we'll maybe get some progression on that . . . even if Satan herself Jacqui Smith is too blind to take notice.
I for one will be waiting with keen ears to see what comes of this years hippie hunt *sigh*

Dutch - 2009-03-13 16:47:07

haha ofcourse they're proceeding with this war on drugs.
Cause no one has the balls to say that they they're wrong with this approach to the drugproblem.
I bet they all know they're doing it wrong, but it's kind of hard to admit that ain't it. Saying to the whole wide world that you, the great Americans, have handled the problem wrong from the beginning and never even admitted that.
For them, the point of no return has past long ago and the shame would be too big if they tell us now the war on drugs is just a stupid idea from the beginning.

jack the tripper - 2009-03-15 00:11:34

drugs will not dissapear als long as we treat nature with the respect it deserves

pawel - 2009-03-15 21:20:59

it's funny when they will try to illegalise alcohol and tabacco :p people won't be happy anymore about the 'drug free world'

Don Jia - 2009-03-17 12:51:15

So there you have it, but does it matter? Nope, and here’s why: everyone with half a brain knows an aggressively repressive drug policy only ever causes popular demand to increase. Tell people they can’t eat from the apple tree and what do they do? Of course some drugs, like crack cocaine, really are addictive and harrowing to individuals and communities at large. But so is consumer capitalism, I mean come on, have any of you tried to have a conversation with any of these zombies out there lately? I dare say on record that more people are more fucked up in their head today than ever.
We have to appreciate there’s nothing “natural” about modern man’s metal and emotional contents, in fact very little of what goes on in our heads these days isn’t programmed or pre-scripted in some way or another. Consumer culture is structured on the logic of the $ign, which is not to say that everything is about money, but that even in a relatively liberal political climate, e.g. as in Netherlands, the overarching Law only allows for self-conception of man that is atomized to the point of the human, conceived of as an autonomous creature, disappearing completely.
From early on we are trained in subtle and not so subtle ways to see ourselves and the world not from within, full of complexity, but from without, as smoothed out images, “as seen on TV.” It’s not just particular advertisements, nor even that spectral entity called “ideology,” but the logic of the $ign coding and structuring culture as a whole. The bad news is that the logic of the $ign, like capitalism in general, thrives on social instability, and in this age of economic turmoil is actually more firmly in place than ever.
The good news, though, is that certain “psychoactive” drugs, while certainly being no miracle cure for consumerist insanity – it’s the easiest thing to slip into an interpassive mindset where you conceive of life as a show for your enjoyment – seem to have the added effect of disrupting the flow of $ign, by freeing up certain energies in our nervous systems, allowing certain individuals to see the code for what it really is: a technology for social control and mass psychic engineering.
When people in a place of political power talk about certain natural substances posing a danger to “public health,” they’re not talking about the individual’s mental health, but the “health” of political economy, which will not settle for anything less than mass psychic enslavement to its logic.

PSYCHONAUTS OF THE WORLD, YOUR PARANOIA IS JUST!!!!!!

SHOOBS - 2009-03-18 11:32:30

the more illegal it is. The more people want it. And all the drug producers will jump at the opportunity to increase production if other dealers drop out because of scare tactics by the government or whatever. So it will get worse if they try and stop it. lol, owned.

master-haze - 2009-03-25 20:43:56

-1

Dûh the government does not tolerate competition. CIA: Cocain International Associated.

animal - 2009-03-26 16:44:56

-2

Moeten jullie allemaal even goed nadenken op wie jullie gaan stemmen bij de volgende Europese verkiezing!

Dizzy - 2009-03-30 16:06:46

The war on drugs...
We like to be specific huh... Alcohol is still one of the most dangerous forms of drugs. Yet we actually promote using it. Same as caffeine, would anyone here work at a place where there is no coffee? Yet caffeine is a harddrug.

Pls stop being hypocrits and work on the drugs that actually harm people.